Research Paper On Blood Doping

Blood transfusions became popular between the 1970s and 1980s with a diverse population of professional athletes. EPOs (a natural hormone made by the kidney’s) followed blood transfusions and gained their popularity in the late 1980s (Eichner). The effects of EPOs were seen through the many health risks that the athletes encountered including the death of 20 European cyclists over a period of 4 years (Eichner). The 1998 Tour de France also saw its fair share of EPO use among athletes with one team being disqualified and 6 more teams dropping out (Eichner). Later came the use of synthetic or artificial blood. In recent years athletes have been accused of, and caught, using all of these methods to increase their endurance and performance. Tests are improving to be able to detect when an athlete has used one of these methods.

All this has changed the whole course of doping. Drugs used to be taken just for a one-off effect which activated various standard bodily functions, but now they may bring about the biological reprogramming of the body. To put it plainly, the time is not far off when it will be scientifically possible to make artificial but lasting changes in the way an organ functions and when the technicians of sport will be able to change each drug to meet the specifications for a particular level of performance.

I first learned about this topic on a television show I watch called Hawaii 5-O. The episode had a group of athletes that were blood doping in order to win bicycling races and to get a leg up on escaping the police after robbing their targets. It briefly explained what the group was doing, and why it made them have better stamina and bettered their athletic abilities. Then when Lance Armstrong was accused of many different types of performance enhancing drugs, he admitted to using blood doping among other techniques. He used the method of blood doping that utilizes EPO, which is a hormone that is produced in the kidney for RBC production. He was stripped of all the Tour de France titles in his possession and the bronze medal he won in the Olympics.

The desire to compete — and win — is as old as history itself. From the beginnings of sport, athletes have sought out foods and potions to turn their bodies into winning machines. As early as 776 BCE, the very first Olympic games, there are records of attempts to increase testosterone levels (“Steroid Abuse in Sports”). Ancient Greek wrestlers ate vast amounts of meat to gain muscle mass, and Norse “Berserker” warriors took hallucinogenic mushrooms before battle. The first competitive athletes to be charged for doping, however, were swimmers in 1860s Amsterdam. Doping of all kinds, from caffeine to cocaine to anabolics quickly spread to other sports (“Anabolic Steroids, a Brief History”).

Ken Caminiti was the first baseball player to admit to using steroids; he never thought he was doing anything illegal because everyone around him was doing it: “I can't say, 'Don't do it,' not when the guy next to you is as big as a house and he's going to take your job and make the money” (gtd. in Zacharias). Recently, cheating has gotten really ruthless. Some athletes might even go to the extreme, like seven times tour de France winner Lance Armstrong did with blood doping; which is a way of boosting the amount of red blood cells in the bloodstream in order to an athletes performance. Everyone from the

In order to understand the positive and negative effect of blood doping to an athlete’s performance, some background information is needed. The general reason why people blood dope is because of the lactic acid build up when doing strenuous sports. If one want to do strenuous workout or exercise, one need a ready supply of oxygen and ATP (adenine triphosphate). When there is lack of oxygen in the body, the muscles are unable to perform at their best potential. When lactic acid builds, it can give you

Nobody would argue that the quality of sports is basically dependent upon the level of skill of its players. As the skills of the players improve, so too does the quality of the game. So why are substances that would further athletes’ skills beyond human levels so ostracized? Doping is the practice of using steroids and other illegal substances to boost performance in sports and athletics. The debate of the morality of such substances has been going on for decades and continues to affect the world of sports in many ways. At the moment, steroids and all other performance-enhancing drugs are banned in their entirety from nearly all sports in most countries of the world. Scandalous lawsuits involving athletes abusing substances are constantly popping up, usually involving players and athletes that were considered fan-favorites or even heroes. Performance-enhancing drugs should be allowed in sports because it would make it easier to control them, allow athletes to perform better, and widespread use of steroids would allow more solid research and advancements in the pharmaceutical field.

The principle of the sport is that every human works with the strength they are willing to attain, but doing this artificially is cheating. While there are plenty of advantages people are predisposed to like genes that give them superior fast-twitch muscle strength or long legs and arms, a pure sport by the rules should be down to physical advantages only altered by how hard athletes work for medals. Since the beginning of all games between humans, dishonesty has been discouraged. To alienate those principles could backfire when more developed countries immediately overpower weaker countries who can't afford such medical endeavors. And there's no coincidence that countries are shamed for this practice. Yet some have reason to argue that if drugs and alterations are legalized in sport this could actually be safer for athletes. Who rather than working under sketchy sources can be provided with information to make the best decision about the drugs based on specific needs. But, had there not been drugs involved in be out of tradition but integrity that athletes honor what it takes to be the best instead of cheating to get

In the medical field, blood transfusions are used to replace blood lost due to emergencies or in patients with conditions that lower red blood cell count like anemia and kidney failure. Athletes improve performance and stamina by using either autologous transfusion, during which their own blood is drawn and stored for future use, or homologous transfusion during which athlete recessives blood from a donor. Erythropoietin is a hormone produced by body to stimulate red blood cell production. In patients with anemia, stimulation of erythropoiesis improves energy and ability to perform daily tasks, but in athletes it greatly increases performance by improving the delivery of oxygen to tissues. Synthetic oxygen carriers like HBOCs and PFCs have the ability to carry additional oxygen, and it is used as therapy when a blood transfusion is needed but no human donor is available. Athletes use synthetic oxygen carriers to achieve the same performance-enhancing effects of other types of blood

Doping has widely become known as the use of banned substances and practices by sports personnel particularly athletes in an attempt to improve sporting performances. No sensible fan of sport today denies the prevalence of drugs in virtually every major sport, yet none would argue they can ever be eliminated completely. Money alone would seem to guarantee that much. High profile athletes today are competing for high stakes, not just millions, but dozens of millions. The fear of losing everything career, opportunity, contracts, name, fame, and money is pushing more sportsmen all over the world to use performance enhancing drugs, mainly

EPO, or blood doping as it is commonly referred to, is dangerous to heart health and can cause other life threatening issues as well. The WADA has listed a few of the dangers of EPO such as, heart disease, stroke, and cerebral or pulmonary embolism. To me the risks far outweigh the benefits from doing this. Not to mention it is been banned by the WADA as a performance enhancing technique. EPO was not created with the intention of helping athletes get an edge over others, but to help people with anemia, because it increases the amount of red blood cells in a persons body. This in turn can make the persons blood very thick and can lead to the above listed issues.

The purpose of the Athlete Biological Passport (ABP) is to observe haematological markers (markers of blood doping), to point out any suspicion of blood doping in the individual’s haematological sample. The ABP is a valuable program which provides information that can be used to direct Target Testing for anti-doping investigations. With the help of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the ABP was created to set an official operating and mandatory standards to follow the ABP guidelines. The ABP program promotes anti-doping in the sports world (which include the athletes who compete on an international or national level), who are subject to the National Anti-Doping Organization Code rules. Athletes who violate these rules are subject to consequences

Athletes for years have been trying new drugs and training in order to gain a competitive edge over their components. A more recent pharmaceutical drug those athletes are trying would be Erythropoietin, or EPO. According to an entry in the Encyclopædia Britannica, EPO works by “increasing or decreasing the rate of red cell production in accordance with need.” Athletes are taking this hormone by injecting it into their bloodstream in order to enhance their performance, otherwise known as blood doping. Brzeziańska, Domańska, & Jegier (2014) stated “The expected effect of the physiological expression of the EPO gene would be increased endurance.” It is clear EPO would be used more for those athletes involved in distance sports, such as marathon

The sports industry is starting to notice decline in viewers, players, and money. A 44% decrease in participation in sports has occurred as of 2015 (Wire). Gene doping could offer a whole new division for the sport world that could enthrall the interest of more people. An athlete's speed, endurance, and muscle strength could increase and developed by gene doping (Steadman). Gene doping can whatan athlete’s ability to play and insure the players safety. The process of genetic doping starts by transferring genetic material into the target cell by an injection (Wells). Furthermore, billions of dollars yearly could be invested by athletes and organizations that could be used to improve

Blood chemistry or blood test is identifying the different levels of chemical ingredients found in the blood. The analysis of these substances provides clues to a patient’s condition and the functioning of the major body systems such as, blood sugar levels, liver functions, essential nutrients etc. This helps doctors in diagnosing the patient’s conditions much easier and quicker.